Autoclaved a stir bar - (Jul/20/2010 )

This is a silly question, but I wanted to get an honest answer. Are stir bars autoclavable? Or does it depend on the brand (because of this I am not certain). I made media, pH'ed it, and then autoclaved it without removing the stir bar (accident). Do you think it is fine to use as is? Or is it possible that the plastic surrounding the stir bar may "give off" particulates that might be toxic for cells?

-kiikyo-

kiikyo on Jul 20 2010, 05:53 PM said:

This is a silly question, but I wanted to get an honest answer. Are stir bars autoclavable? Or does it depend on the brand (because of this I am not certain). I made media, pH'ed it, and then autoclaved it without removing the stir bar (accident). Do you think it is fine to use as is? Or is it possible that the plastic surrounding the stir bar may "give off" particulates that might be toxic for cells?

Many (or all?) stir bars are teflon-coated and should be autoclavable, because a teflon-coated frying pan is exposed to much higher temperatures...

-hobglobin-

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure.

-kiikyo-

I used to do that all the time and never had a problem.

-lllueck-

I always autoclave the stir bar in my media so that I can slowly stir it while it cools.